Membertou residential school survivor surprised by gesture from Catholic Church

Senior officials with the Catholic Church knelt before Mi’kmaq representatives at the Treaty Day mass Monday in Halifax to make a formal apology for the abuse that occurred at the Shubenacadie Residential School. The Rite of Forgiveness at St. Mary’s Basilica included Archbishop of Halifax-Yarmouth Rev. Anthony Mancini and Bishop of Antigonish Rev. Brian Dunn. - Contributed

SYDNEY, N.S. — A surprise act of forgiveness has one residential school survivor in awe.

“It was something I personally did not expect,” said Sr. Dorothy Moore of Membertou, who attended Treaty Day mass at St. Mary’s Basilica in Halifax on Monday.

During the mass, Catholic Church officials knelt before Mi’kmaq representatives at the service and made a formal apology for the abuse that occurred at the Shubenacadie Residential School. The Rite of Forgiveness included Archbishop of Halifax-Yarmouth Anthony Mancini and Bishop of Antigonish Brian Dunn.

Sister Dorothy Moore

“As leaders of the Catholic Church in Nova Scotia, it is important and necessary to seek pardon for our errors, to acknowledge our faults and failures and to confess our sins,” a part of the rite reads. “On this day, we personally and in our roles as leaders of the Catholic Church in Nova Scotia, kneel before the representatives of the Mi’kmaq nation to express our regret, sorrow and apology for the hurts, violence and abuse experienced in the Residential School of Shubenacadie.”

Moore was still moved by the gesture when asked to describe the scene. She called it “the highlight of her life.”

“It’s the most sincere thing — I don’t know how to describe it,” said Moore, a distinguished Mi’kmaq educator named to the Order of Canada in 2005. “To see the two bishops on their knees, facing a church full of Mi’kmaq people and asking for forgiveness in so many different ways the church feels they hurt the Mi’kmaq people. It’s just the prayer of asking the people to grant them a new beginning — in other words, let’s look at tomorrow in a different way.”

The residential school in Shubenacadie opened in 1930 and closed in 1967. An estimated 1,000 children were placed in the institution over its 37-year history. Many survivors have outlined the abuse they suffered while attending the institution. The children were prohibited from speaking Mi’kmaq or practising their culture.

Moore, 85, attended the Shubenacadie school between 1943-45 from the ages of 10-12.

“Every individual has had his or her own experience at a residential school,” she said. “I speak for myself when I say my experiences there were hurting memories. They were not good experiences. However, there was a lining of good things that I learned to do while I was there and I suppose I’m still doing them. But I think the part that was so memorable to me is the fact that I had such physical abuse there.”

When asked if an apology like this is overdue, Moore said now is the time for a reason.

“In my belief in God’s plan, this was the right time for this to happen and for the right people to be in the church to see, to observe, to hear the bishops claiming their act of asking for forgiveness.”